One night in Bangkok...

Ok, it was two nights. Just enough to get a taste for the city.

Bangkok is 2.5 hour flight from Singapore, so the BF and I headed there for a weekend in December. Though north of Singapore, Bangkok is still a tropical climate, so the weather was warm and wet while there, but pleasant for touring around the city.

We arrived on a Friday night and toured around our neighborhood of Sukhumvit. This area is known for its social opportunities, restaurants, cafes, bars, hotels and shops. Though it lacks some of the seedier activity that Bangkok is known to have, as depicted in movies like The Hangover: Part II. So we strolled past some street vendor shops that were set up along the sidewalk to a lovely restaurant serving authentic local cuisine. We ordered some popular dishes, like pad thai and Thai-style crab, then ordered some other stuff that we werent sure about, but wanted to try. It was all delicious and we went back to the hotel full and happy. 

The next day, we toured around our neighborhood again and then headed to the Chatuchak Market. Open only on weekends, it has stalls selling everything from porcelain handicrafts and hammered steel decor (bowls and candlesticks and the like) to paintings, ceramics, woven goods, bags, clever t-shirts and knock-off purses. It also has a wet market area, where fruits and vegetables and meats and fish are sold. Rows and rows and rows and rows of stalls and stores. It may not be the world's biggest market, but it certainly felt that way. We spent all afternoon there and only covered a fraction of the market. I'm not sure what fraction of the market, because I'm not sure we saw more than one edge of the market - the end from which we entered.

We had a great time. We bought Christmas presents and souvenirs and found some great things. We got home with a mind-boggling amount of Thai silk scarves. It. Was. Awesome.

After shopping, we took a harrowing taxi ride back to our hotel. We had heard that auto traffic in Bangkok was a nightmare, so we took public transit to get to the market. But with our bags and bundles (srsly. we bought a lot of scarves.) we decided to take a taxi back. Our taxi driver tells us he's going to take us to a tailor shop on the way back to the hotel. When we told him we werent interested in stopping by the tailor shop, he upped his fare. Interesting little racket he's got going there..... We proceed to sit in traffic in who knows what part of town, as we watch the gas gauge on the vehicle get closer to empty. At some point, not that far from our hotel, the taxi driver pulls over to the side of the road, hops out, runs over to some bushes and relieves himself. He then hops back into the taxi, apologizes for the delay and we're off again. Now, I have taken many a taxi in America that has had some strange occurrences, but that was my first roadside potty break. 

We finally get back to the hotel, shower, change and head out for dinner. We had scheduled an early morning city tour and a 6am wake-up call, so we called it a night and headed to bed pretty early. 

First thing the next day we met our tour guide and headed out for a tour of the city, starting with a boat ride through the canals and rivers through town. I love a good boat ride, especially one where we get to see interesting architecture of paddle-up homes and temples, people paddling their wares to market and giant (I mean GIANT) catfish bobbing through the water. 

After an hour on the water, we headed off to see the Grand Palace, the Royal Museum and some of the country's major temples.

The temples of Thailand have a unique look that makes them recognizable and different than the temples of Indonesia or Cambodia or Malaysia. The temple structures and stupas are ornate, with decorative buttresses, towers and pillars and are covered in mosaic patterns of shiny metal, glass and mirrors. Cambodia stupas have similar formats, but are more likely made of carved stone or clay and sometimes include mosaic design made of bits of ceramic. I know this now. Did not know this before.

In the key temples (or Wats, as they're called in Thai), there is a rule that arms and legs (of men and women) must be covered. But it was very warm in the city, so we did not wear long pants and sleeves for our touring and covered up just for the temple. I was not prepared for this and had not packed my zip-off pants, so I rented a wrap skirt from a lovely street vendor outside the temple in order to meet the dress requirements and gain entrance. That's right, I said rented. A cottage industry has sprung up outside the temple, to rent proper clothing to tourists. 

While wearing the very colorful wrap skirt and touring the temples, we saw the emerald Buddha wearing his winter garb (he has multiple outfits and there is an outfit-changing ceremony every few months when the Buddha's wardrobe is changed). 

We saw a very large, very shiny reclining Buddha that was so large, they had to build the building in which it's housed around the Buddha.

And we saw a giant gong. It looked like something out of the old 70's TV show, "The Gong Show" and of course, the BF wanted to pose with it. He may or may not have also said he would love to have something like that in his house...... But for now, we'll have to make do with a pic of him pretending to hit the gong. (In the temple, they don't let tourists hit the gong.....but if he had one at home, the BF could hit his own gong. Maybe that's why he wants one....)

And pretty much the whole time we were touring I kept singing "Shall we dance" and "There's no place like home" in my head, expecting to see Yul Brynner pop up and shout "Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera!" Because up til this, the movie "The King And I" was the basis of my knowledge of Thai history.....And turns out, it's an excellent period piece that shows much of the Thai culture and history.

Anyway, after a long day touring the city, we changed and headed out to dinner at a rooftop bar we heard was worth it. And we were not disappointed. Above Eleven, the bar at the top of a hotel in the Sukhumvit neighborhood. It has delicious drinks, delicious fusion food and the best bathroom I've ever been in. Seriously, the bathroom had gorgeous views of the city from the stalls and the sink area. And the views from our table weren't bad either.

After an action-packed (though PG) visit to Bangkok, we headed back to the airport and back to Singapore. At no point did I feel the devil walking next to me, though I did feel a bit like the world was my oyster....